Field
The present disclosure relates generally to antennas, and more particularly, to selecting an antenna, tuning an antenna, or both.
Background
Wireless communication devices are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication devices may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems. Generally, these wireless communication devices may transmit data, receive data, or both transmit data and receive data using an antenna, antennas, or an antenna system.
Wireless communication devices operating within such wireless communication devices may have multiple antennas. For example, such a wireless communication device may be a mobile telephone handset, so called “smart” phone, tablet computer, or another type of wireless communication device. Each of the multiple antennas of the wireless communication device may be, for example, within the wireless communication device or outside the wireless communication device. The multiple antennas may be within a case enclosing the rest of the communication device, attached to the case, protrude from the case, or otherwise be located relative to the case. Each antenna may be in a different location, relative to the other antennas in the wireless communication device. Additionally, each of these multiple antennas may have a different orientation relative to the other antennas in the wireless communication device. Because the antennas are in different locations and may have different orientations, each antenna may perform differently. This may be true even if the antennas are of the same type. Accordingly, it may be necessary to select from between these multiple antennas.